I am not Iron Man

Back in the first Iron Man film, Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) puts together his first suit in the comfort of his own lab.

With the help of Jarvis and a few robots, dons the suit and gives it an initial test flight.

The process by which he dons and doffs the suit is, quite simply, a system.

Or, to put it another way, a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole.

In the first film, in order for Tony's system to work, and the suit to end up on his body in the shortest possible time (so he can kick some ass) he needs to be at home.

Which is a bit of a bugger if he needs it and he's nowhere near home.

Captain America - "Tony, we need you to be Iron Man about now..."

Tony Stark - "Ah shit, I'm nowhere near home..."

That^^ is a not a good outcome.

Which means that Tony has to evolve his suit donning process so that it can happen where ever he is, which of course he does throughout the films, eventually ending up with some sweet nanotech.

(And who doesn't love a bit of nanotech?)

Basically, he upgraded his system so that it always worked for him.

"Yeah, but Dave, I'm not Iron Man..."

That's true, but you still have systems.

You still have things that you do, in a particular way to get shit done.

Maybe it's a system for exercising.

Or loosing weight.

Perhaps getting new clients.

Whatever it is, it's a set of processes that makes your life easier.

But it's only good if you can execute that system.

When I talk to clients and have conversations with other people, they have amazing systems.

Either planned or ready to implement, but they don't actually get used.

Why is that?

Well, they are either far too complex, or they require you to be in a certain place, at a certain time, or in a certain mindset.

When the stars are not aligned you say "fuck it" and just don't execute the system.

Then get pissed off and it reinforces some story that you tell yourself about not being good enough.

The thing is this - there is a way of getting past this.

Create a system that is so simple you can use it anywhere.

Create a system that has a few easily actionable steps.

Reduce the barriers to using the system and ride the warm and fuzzies from the system working again, and again, and again.